Fentress Architects is an international design firm known for large-scale public architecture such as

airports An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. They usually consist of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space including at least one operationally active surface such ...

museums A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private collections that are used by researchers ...

university A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...

buildings, convention centers,

laboratories A laboratory (; ; colloquially lab) is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which science, scientific or technological research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. Laboratories are found in a variety of settings such as s ...

, and high-rise

office An office is a space where the employees of an organization perform Business administration, administrative Work (human activity), work in order to support and realize the various goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a po ...

towers. Some of the buildings for which the firm is best known include

Denver International Airport Denver International Airport , often referred to by locals as DIA, is an international airport in the Western United States, primarily serving metropolitan Denver, Colorado, as well as the greater Front Range Urban Corridor. At , Effective Ju ...

(1995), the modernized Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX (2013), the

National Museum of the Marine Corps The National Museum of the Marine Corps is the historical museum of the United States Marine Corps. Located in Triangle, Virginia near Marine Corps Base Quantico, the museum opened on November 10, 2006, and is now one of the top tourist attracti ...

near Quantico, Virginia (2005), and the Green Square Complex in

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

(2012). Founded in 1980 by Curtis W. Fentress, FAIA, RIBA, the firm's designs, especially its airports, are often compared to the

expressionist Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

architecture of

Eero Saarinen Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer who created a wide array of innovative designs for buildings and monuments, including the General Motors Technical Center; the pa ...

. However, architectural curator Donald Albrecht has noted that within Fentress' designs is a "stiff dose of regionalism. " Fentress Architects has studios in

Denver, Colorado Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

;

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

; San Jose,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

;

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

;

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

; and

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. In 2010, Curtis Fentress was awarded the highest award for public architecture, the Thomas Jefferson Award, by the American Institute of Architects AIA Awards website. Fentress was also given the Silver Medal in 2010, which is the highest award given to an architect from the AIA Western Mountain Region for the contributions made to the region. In 2012, Fentress was awarded AIA Colorado's Architect of the Year. Fentress Architects is the designer of the

Arraya Tower The Arraya Tower is a skyscraper completed in 2009 in Kuwait City, Kuwait. The tower serves as a grade-A office structure. With sixty storeys, and 300 metres high (with a 45-metre spire), the building was the tallest tower in Kuwait until the con ...

Kuwait City Kuwait City (; ) is the capital and largest city of Kuwait. Located at the heart of the country on the south shore of Kuwait Bay on the Persian Gulf, it is the political, cultural and economic center of the emirate, containing Kuwait's Seif Pal ...

. The tower is the tallest in

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

and the 53rd tallest in the world

History

Curtis Fentress graduated with honors from

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State, North Carolina State, NC State University, or NCSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina, United States. Founded in 1887 and p ...

's College of Design, School of Architecture where he received a Bachelor of Architecture degree. Following graduation, he joined the firm of

I.M. Pei Ieoh Ming Pei
– website of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners ( ; ; April 26, 1917 – May 16, 2019) was ...

and Partners in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. As a Senior Designer, he was responsible for the master planning of major site development plans. He became a project designer with the New York architectural firm of

Kohn Pedersen Fox Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (KPF) is an American architectural firm based in New York City that provides architecture, interior, programming and master planning services. They engineer different projects including civic and cultural spaces, com ...

. During this time, he came to Denver as the Project Designer for the Rocky Mountain Headquarters of Amoco in downtown Denver. In January 1980, Fentress formed C.W. Fentress and Associates with James Henry Bradburn. After early success, the collapse of the oil and gas industries in Colorado in the early 1980s ushered in a period of difficulty for the firm. Fentress Architects' fortunes rebounded in 1987 when the firm won a design competition for the Colorado Convention Center. The competition pitted Fentress and his partners against several better-financed and more famous opponents, including

Phil Anschutz Philip Frederick Anschutz ( ; born December 28, 1939) is an American billionaire businessman who owns or controls companies in a variety of industries, including energy, railroads, real estate, sports, newspapers, travel, movies, theaters, arena ...

, who had partnered with the firm belonging to Curtis Fentress' former mentor, I.M. Pei. It was only in the 1990s that Fentress Architects rose to international fame by designing the

. The peaked roof of the terminal has become well known to travelers worldwide and ushered in a revolution in more expressionistic airport design. Curator Donald Albrecht credits the design of Denver International Airport with bringing glamor back to the airport typology. The unveiling of DIA was marked by a dysfunctional "state-of-the-art" baggage delivery system (the vendor at fault has since replaced the system). Subsequently, DIA has been voted the "Best Airport in North America" and the fourth "Favorite American Architecture" completed in the last fifteen years. In 2001, Fentress designed the

Incheon International Airport Incheon International Airport is the main international airport serving Seoul, the capital of South Korea. It is also one of the largest and busiest airports in the world. This airport opened for business on 29 March 2001, to replace the old ...

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the southern half of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and borders North Korea along the Korean Demilitarized Zone, with the Yellow Sea to the west and t ...

, voted "Best Airport Worldwide" four consecutive years by Airport Council International's Airport Quality Survey program. Airport Council "Best Airport in the World" in 2007 by passengers surveyed for the Official Airlines Guide. The firm designs a range of large scale projects (see listing below) from museums and convention centers, to stadiums and commercial office buildings. Bradburn retired, and in 2007, the firm's name was abbreviated from Fentress Bradburn Architects to Fentress Architects. To date, the firm has won 425 design and innovation awards and has a design portfolio of $27 billion. Each year, more than 330 million people worldwide visit a project designed by Fentress Architects.

''Now Boarding''

In 2012, a major museum exhibition of Fentress Architects' airport designs entitled ''Now Boarding: Fentress Airports + the Architecture of Flight'' was opened at the

Denver Art Museum The Denver Art Museum (DAM) is an art museum located in the Civic Center of Denver, Colorado. With an encyclopedic collection of more than 70,000 diverse works from across the centuries and world, the DAM is one of the largest art museums betwe ...

. Curated by Donald Albrecht, architectural curator for the

Museum of the City of New York The Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) is a history and art museum in Manhattan, New York City, New York. It was founded by Henry Collins Brown, in 1923Beard, Rick. "Museum of the City of New York" in to preserve and present the history ...

whose previous exhibitions include well-received retrospectives on the work of such architectural notables as

and

Charles and Ray Eames Charles Eames ( Charles Eames, Jr) and Ray Eames ( Ray-Bernice Eames) were an American married couple of industrial designers who made significant historical contributions to the development of modern architecture and furniture through the work of ...

, ''Now Boarding'' ran for nearly three months. A travelling version of the exhibition appeared in Amsterdam in November 2012, and the exhibition's full version will open in at the Museum of Flying in Santa Monica, CA beginning in March 2013.

Awards and honors

World's Best Airports: Fentress-designed Incheon International Airport in Seoul, South Korea was voted "World's Best Airport" by Skytrax's 2009 World Airport Awards, a survey of 8.6 million international travelers. World's Most Beautiful Airports: *

Denver's airport features a Teflon-coated tensile fabric roof—the world's largest when the airport opened in 1995.

World's 4th tallest building completed in 2009: Fentress is the designer of the world's 4th tallest building completed in 2009—Arraya Tower in Kuwait City, also the tallest in Kuwait. Arraya is one of 14 high rises in Fentress' design portfolio in the Persian Gulf.

Architectural philosophy

Fentress has developed a design process he calls the "Patient Search". He has said of the process; "I don't begin with a preconceived notion of what the building needs to be – it is not a sculpture. I patiently search, walk the site, study the culture, follow our process until I find a seam somewhere, crack it open and discover the art inside." Asked about his philosophical approach, Fentress once stated, "My philosophy is ultimately...pragmatism".

Rankings

* Architectural Record's "Top 150 Architecture Firms" – Fentress Architects ranked #24 among architecture-only firms * Building Design & Construction's "Giants 300," Top Architects – Fentress Architects ranked #18 among architecture-only firms * Engineering News Record's "Top 500 Design Firms" – Fentress Architects ranked #29 among architecture-only firms * Engineering News Record's "Top Airport Design Firms" – Fentress Architects ranked in top 25 firms * In 2003, Colorado Construction ranked Fentress Architects as the Top Architectural Firm in Colorado. Fentress ranked #14 in California Construction's "Top Design Firms" in 2005.

Sustainable design

* 1993 Architecture and Energy Award for the Natural Resources Building in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital city of the U.S. state of Washington. It had a population of 55,605 at the 2020 census, making it the state of Washington's 23rd-most populous city. Olympia is the county seat of Thurston County, and the central city ...

. * About half of the firm's design professionals are LEED accredited. * More than 60% of Fentress' projects under construction or completed in 2009 were LEED certified or pending certification. * 2003 LEED Gold 2.0 award for California's Department of Education Headquarters Building, which received Platinum certification in 2006 by the U.S. Green Building Council's

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a Green building certification systems, green building certification program used worldwide. Developed by the non-profit U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), it includes a set of rating ...

(LEED) rating system. It was featured as a case study in the Fall 2009 issue of High Performing Buildings. LEED certified projects include, but are not limited to: * Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine—LEED Gold * Green Square Complex—LEED Platinum (expected) * Palazzo Verdi—LEED Gold * San Joaquin County Administration Building—LEED Gold * Santa Fe Community Convention Center—LEED Gold * David E. Skaggs Federal Building (NOAA) * UCI Humanities Gateway — LEED Platinum * California Department of Education Headquarters—LEED Platinum

Projects

Airports *

Main Passenger Terminal, Denver, Colorado, USA *

Passenger Terminal, Seoul, South Korea *

Los Angeles International Airport Los Angeles International Airport is the primary international airport serving Los Angeles and its Greater Los Angeles, surrounding metropolitan area, in the U.S. state of California. LAX is located in the Westchester, Los Angeles, Westcheste ...

Master Plan and International Terminal, Los Angeles, California, USA *

Raleigh-Durham International Airport The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont (United States), Piedmont region of the U.S. state of North Carolina. Anchored by the cities of Raleigh, North Carolina, Raleigh an ...

Terminal 2 Redevelopment, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA * Seattle-Tacoma International Airport Central Terminal Expansion Seattle, Washington, USA *

Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport San José Mineta International Airport —officially Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport—is a city-owned public airport in San Jose, California. Located northwest of Downtown San Jose, the airport serves both the city and the ...

, Terminal B San Jose, California, USA *

Sacramento International Airport Sacramento International Airport is an international airport located in Sacramento, northwest of Downtown Sacramento in Sacramento County, California, United States and covers . It serves the Sacramento Metropolitan Area, and it is run by th ...

, Sacramento, California, USA *

Doha International Airport Doha International Airport () is an airport in Doha, Qatar. It was Qatar's commercial international airport until Hamad International Airport opened on 27 May 2014. While all scheduled commercial traffic ceased, the airport site and existing ru ...

(Tower), Doha, Qatar Civic * Ralph L. Carr Judicial Center, Denver, Colorado, USA * California Department of Education Headquarters, Sacramento, California, USA * City of Oakland Administration Buildings,

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, USA * Clark County Government Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA *

Colorado State Capitol The Colorado State Capitol Building, located at 200 East Colfax Avenue in Denver, Colorado, United States, is the home of the Colorado General Assembly and the offices of the Governor of Colorado, Lieutenant Governor of Colorado, and the Co ...

Renovations, Denver, Colorado, USA *

Jefferson County Government Center The Jefferson County Government Center, is a consolidation of numerous governmental departments for Jefferson County, Colorado. Located in Golden, Colorado, the contains a judicial wing of and an administrative wing, joined by the central lobby ...

, Golden, Colorado, USA * Regional Transportation Center and Flood Control District Headquarters, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA * Sacramento City Hall,

Sacramento, California Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of California and the county seat, seat of Sacramento County, California, Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento Rive ...

, USA * San Joaquin County Administration Building,

Stockton, California Stockton is a city in and the county seat of San Joaquin County, California, San Joaquin County in the Central Valley (California), Central Valley of the U.S. state of California. It is the most populous city in the county, the List of municipal ...

, USA Commercial Office & Mixed-Use * Arraya Class A Office Tower,

Kuwait City, Kuwait Kuwait City (; ) is the capital and largest city of Kuwait. Located at the heart of the country on the south shore of Kuwait Bay on the Persian Gulf, it is the political, cultural and economic center of the emirate, containing Kuwait's Seif Pal ...

-- World's 4th tallest building completed in 2009 * Baitek,

* Dubai Mixed-Use Towers,

Dubai, United Arab Emirates Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

* Kuwait Business Town, Al Sharq, Kuwait * 1999 Broadway, Denver, Colorado, USA * 421 Broadway, Denver, Colorado, USA * Gulf Canada Resources Limited, Denver, Colorado, USA *

JD Edwards J.D. Edwards World Solution Company or JD Edwards, abbreviated JDE, was an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software company, whose namesake ERP system is still sold under ownership by Oracle Corporation. JDE's products included ''World'' for ...

& Co Corporate Campus, Denver, Colorado, USA * UniSource Energy Tower,

Tucson, Arizona Tucson (; ; ) is a city in Pima County, Arizona, United States, and its county seat. It is the second-most populous city in Arizona, behind Phoenix, Arizona, Phoenix, with a population of 542,630 in the 2020 United States census. The Tucson ...

, USA * Palazzo Verdi Mixed-Use, Greenwood Village, Colorado, USA Cultural * Green Square Complex, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA * Army Visitor & Education Center, Carlisle, Pennsylvania USA *

Buffalo Bill Historical Center The Buffalo Bill Center of the West, formerly known as the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, is a complex of five museums and a research library featuring art and artifacts of the American West located in Cody, Wyoming. The five museums are the Bu ...

, Cody, Wyoming, USA * Draper National History Museum and Whitney Gallery, Cody, Wyoming, USA * Museum of Science, Boston, Massachusetts, USA * Museum of Western Art, The Navarre, Denver, Colorado, USA *

National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum is a museum in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, with more than 28,000 American West, Western and Native American art works and Artifact (archaeology), artifacts. The facility also has the worl ...

Expansion and Renovation, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA *

, Quantico, Virginia, USA * National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, Wyoming, USA Laboratory * Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, La Jolla, California, USA * David E. Skaggs Research Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA * Natural Resources Building, Olympia, Washington, USA *

University of Colorado Denver The University of Colorado Denver (CU Denver) is a Public university, public research university located in downtown Denver, Colorado. It is part of the University of Colorado system. Established in 1912 as an extension of the University of C ...

(UCD),

Anschutz Medical Campus The University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus is the academic health sciences campus in Aurora, Colorado that houses the University of Colorado's six health sciences-related schools and colleges, including the University of Colorado Scho ...

, Research Complex I, Aurora, Colorado, USA * UCDHSC, Anschutz Medical Campus, Research Complex II, Aurora, Colorado, USA Public Assembly * Arvada Center Expansion, Arvada, Colorado, USA *

Colorado Convention Center The Colorado Convention Center (CCC) is a multi-purpose convention center located in Downtown Denver, Colorado. At 2,200,000 square feet (total space) it is currently the 12th largest convention center in the United States. Opening in 1990, the ...

and Phase II Expansion, Denver, Colorado, USA * Eccles Conference Center and Peery's Egyptian Theatre, Ogden, Utah, USA * Sports Authority Field at Mile High, Denver, Colorado, USA * Palm Springs Convention Center Expansion, Palm Springs, California, USA *

Pasadena Conference Center The Pasadena Convention Center is a convention center in Pasadena, California, United States. It consists of three buildings. Pasadena Civic Auditorium The Civic Auditorium, one of the major structures in the Pasadena Civic Center District, wa ...

Expansion, Pasadena, California USA * Santa Fe Conference Center,

Santa Fe, New Mexico Santa Fe ( ; , literal translation, lit. "Holy Faith") is the capital city, capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico, and the county seat of Santa Fe County. With over 89,000 residents, Santa Fe is the List of municipalities in New Mexico, fourt ...

, USA Education * Tennyson Center for Children, Denver, Colorado, USA * Denver Academy High School, Denver, Colorado, USA * Mathematics Building & Gemmill Engineering Library, University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado, USA * Humanities Gateway, University of California, Irvine; Irvine, California, USA Hotel & Residential * One Polo Creek, Denver, Colorado, USA * One Wynkoop Plaza, Denver, Colorado, USA * Palmetto Bay Plantation, Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras * Tritch Building Renovation into Courtyard by Marriott, Denver, Colorado, USA * Watermark Luxury Residences, Denver, Colorado, USA

References

{{Authority control Companies based in Denver Architecture firms based in Colorado American companies established in 1980 1980 establishments in Colorado